Has Intel's Technological Lead Exhausted?

Piyush Arora, The Motley Fool July 21, 2014

Historically, Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC ) chip fabrication process has been more advanced than its peers'. The chipmaker, for instance, is the first to mass-manufacture computing chips based on a 22nm and 14nm FinFET lithography. This technological lead, in turn, has allowed Intel to repeatedly deliver impressive performance gains under a comparable power draw, before its peers.

Heading further into 2014, however, Intel's hegemony may be challenged. GlobalFoundries and Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM ) -- leading pure-play chip manufacturers -- are catching up fast. More to the point, their shift to 14nm and 16nm FinFET fabrication process, respectively, may be detrimental to Intel's growth going forward.